


Tony Stark Was Trouble

by PrinceMalice



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Art, Christmas, Drabble, Gift, Growing Up, M/M, Pseudo-Incest, Steve doesn't age much, Steve was never froxen, SteveTonyFest, Stony - Freeform, The shit Tony says, stac
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2018-01-03 15:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceMalice/pseuds/PrinceMalice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve couldn’t have known what he was getting into at the time, but he should have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tony Stark Was Trouble

**Author's Note:**

  * For [impossiblyconfused](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=impossiblyconfused).



> This if a gift for impossiblyconfused on Tumblr for the Christmas Stony exchange! I hope you enjoy it!

Tony Stark was _trouble_. Steve knew the moment Howard brought the five year old bundle of sugar-fed catastrophe to work. Catastrophe because even having been around children a great deal of his life, Steve was unprepared to witness the destruction of thousands of dollars of military property in the time span of a single afternoon, not to mention at the hands of one boy. Steve had to admit even then, Tony Stark had talent.  

Most children upon meeting their hero would be stunned into a state of worship. Tony, however, took one look at Steve’s broad shoulders and star spangled tights and promptly thanked his father for the new toy, and asked when he might be able to begin playing with it.

Howard had laughed because in those days, he still could, and Steve had turned a shade of red he hadn’t quite known himself to be capable of. Tony looked unimpressed with the exchange and instead began comparing Steve to the absurd caricatures from the comic Tony kept in his backpack.

“I thought you’d be bigger,” and really, after a comment like that it was a miracle Steve even agreed to godfather the kid. He couldn’t have known what he was getting into at the time, but he should have.

It wasn’t much of an obligation, as many thought when agreeing to such roles. Steve would show up for Tony’s birthdays and call him and listen to him chatter about what he blew up in what science fair this time and it was all so simple, except for when it wasn’t.

Tony always got mad when Steve visited because he refused to wear the uniform. To Tony, Captain America without his stars and stripes was just plain old Steve and who was he to brag about?

“What is the point of having Captain America when I can’t show him off?” Tony said one day after school when Steve picked him up. He’d rolled his eyes and crossed his arm and yeah, now Steve was seeing some Maria Stark in there. Steve could not ignore the pang in his heart when he overheard Tony tell one of his schoolmates, “Oh, it’s just Uncle Steve,” but felt considerably better when Tony punched another schoolmate in the arm two days later for saying, “Oh, it’s just Uncle Steve.”

But really, Steve didn’t condone that sort of behavior and was sure to scowl for a full five minutes after talking to Tony’s principle (Which, honestly, should have been Howard’s job).

The problem with Tony was that he was convinced that he knew everything and that everything he said was law. It wasn’t usually so bad. Sometimes he would declare that Steve would make him pancakes for breakfast or read to him the old comics they printed back in the war. When Steve would tell Tony that you weren’t supposed to have comics read to you, Tony would insist that it wasn’t the same if Steve didn’t make the Captain America voices.

 Tony’s statements about what he wanted never really became a problem until he was eight and looked up from his breakfast cereal and said very plainly that he was going to marry Steve one day. Steve tried to explain to Tony why that wouldn’t happen. He mentioned everything from the fact that, legally, two boys can’t get married, to them sort of being like family.

Consequently, that was when Tony stopped referring to Steve as _Uncle_ Steve and the super soldier knew he was doomed.

If Steve had any control over the situation, that would have been the time to start distancing himself. Unfortunately, (possibly not unrelated) that was around when Maria fell tragically ill and Howard began to draw away from his child. Steve was left with little choice but to begin taking full responsibility for the pompous little genius.

Even on Christmas, Howard was too hung over to participate in the gift exchanges and Steve didn’t have to heart to tell Tony that he couldn’t drink the syrup out of the bottle or that he should probably wash his Captain America onesie that he’d been wearing for three days.

Instead, Steve watched while Tony critiqued the craftsmanship of each present and then totally didn’t tear up when the kid presented him schematics for what he considered to be a far better idea for a uniform than spandex. The science seemed as spot on as anything Howard ever planned but the drawing was still, in the end, that of an eight year old and colored with Crayola markers that weren’t quite the right shade of blue.

Steve hung it on his fridge in his apartment and it made the place far less drab.

The day after Christmas he was back to clean Howard up and ship him back to work. The man didn’t take well to his first holiday without the wife and Steve couldn’t blame him for that. He could blame him, however, for Tony having stayed up all night playing and that he still wore the onesie now stained with hot cocoa.

Tony didn’t complain much when Steve hoisted him onto his shoulders and took him upstairs, he just flopped backwards and hung there as if trying to make Steve’s life as difficult as possible.

“Are you ever going to take that off, Tony?” he asked, grabbing the fabric to keep the boy still.

“Nope.”

It took a while, but eventually Steve was able to wrangle the outfit from him and throw it in the wash. He stood by the machine while it whirred to life and rubbed his eyes.

Tony Stark was something else.

Steve wished that he had been stronger through it all, but after having Maria and eventually, Howard both pass away and Tony becoming, well, _his_ , life got a bit more difficult. Although if you asked Tony, he had always been Steve’s and despite the little talk they had, Tony still told everybody he met that he was going to marry Captain America and that was that.

Steve was painfully grateful that Tony was so smart and was in possession of a growing fortune or his big mouth might have gotten him into real trouble. Sometimes it still did.

So Tony grew up to be a stunning young man (to no one’s surprise) with an affinity for caffeine and hard work and making passes at Steve in the kitchen.

It wasn’t that Steve was uncomfortable because in a way, Tony was like a son to him. He was uncomfortable because fifteen years later and he couldn’t imagine his life being anything other than him and Tony, which really made things strange when Tony began dating.

Steve wasn’t sure if it could actually be called dating because it never lasted more than a week before Tony had moved on to more ambitious prey, all the while claiming that his heart had been Steve’s all along.

It was enough to mess with a man’s head.

Although he was getting older (and Tony never let him forget it), Steve still looked and felt young, so when SHEILD decided that it was time for the old veteran to come out of retirement, Steve agreed. Tony wasn’t so pleased at that because it didn’t fit Tony’s picture of Steve being there whenever he wanted, even if it was to pick back up the Captain America mantle.

While fighting off villains with as much vigor as ever, Steve wondered for the first time if he was going to outlive Tony, but was ripped from the dark thoughts by a blast of ACDC and a streak of brilliant red through the sky.

“Miss me, Cap?”

They fought for days about Tony’s little project but despite Steve’s protests and reminders about a terrorist incident Tony wouldn’t acknowledge, Tony refused to let him back onto the field without backup. He might have put up more of a fight if the man hadn’t been so transparently concerned about him, which Steve had never seen before.

Their first Christmas as superheroes (take note, Cap, it’s the first of many) Tony had Jarvis take a picture of them together. Tony wrapped himself around Steve like a leech and although Steve tried not to think too hard about it, the whole thing felt oddly promising.

“Are you ever going to take that off, Steve?” Tony teased, tugging just slightly at the end of Steve’s shirt.

Jarvis managed to capture in the photo the moment between unabashed love and overwhelming embarrassment on Steve’s face and the super soldier knew he was busted.

Tony Stark was one of a kind.

 


End file.
